George Q. Cannon

“ In the month of June when Joseph returned to Kirtland from Missouri he met and gave the hand of fellowship to Brigham Young, who had journeyed to Kirtland to hear the voice of the Prophet of God. A most memorable meeting was this of these two men whose names and fame were to become so indissolubly united! Of all the men of their generation they were to be the most loved and hated, their words and deeds were to be heralded to every corner of the earth, and, beyond those of all their contemporaries, were to make the deepest impress upon the world. ”

“ It is to be feared that, in the course of a century, some gifted man like Paul, some splendid orator, who will be able by his eloquence to attract crowds of the thousands who are ever ready to hear, and be carried away by the sounding brass and tinkling cymbal of sparkling oratory, may command a hearing, may succeed in breathing a new life into this modern Mahometanism, and make the name of the martyred Joseph ring as loud, and stir the souls of men as much, as the mighty name of Christ itself. ”

“ Joseph and Hyrum are now dead; but like the first martyr they yet speak. Their united voice is one of testimony, admonition and warning to the world.
They lived men of God. They died pure and holy, sealing their testimony with their blood.
No men ever suffered greater persecution than they: no men were ever less understood by their generation.
It is in the hope that the Saints may find joy in reading of their beloved Prophet and Patriarch, and that the world may judge more fairly of these benefactors of mankind, that this book is written. ”

“ I call all men, from Maine to the Rocky Mountains, and from Mexico to British America, whose hearts thrill with horror to behold the rights of free men trampled under foot, to come to the deliverance of this people from the cruel hand of oppression, cruelty, anarchy and misrule to which they have long been made subject. Come, all ye lovers of liberty, break the oppressor's rod, loose the iron grasp of mobocracy, and bring to condign punishment all those who trample under foot the glorious principles of our Constitution and the people's rights [Drawing his sword and presenting it to heaven.] ”

“ A people who, for the sake of their religion, have had to mourn the premature deaths of parents, husbands, wives and children. A people who have preferred death to slavery and hypocrisy, and have honorably maintained their characters and stood firm and immovable in times that have tried men's souls. Stand fast, ye Saints of God, hold on a little longer, and the storm of life will be past, and you will be rewarded by that God whose servants you are, and who will duly appreciate all your toils and afflictions for Christ's sake and the gospel's. ”

“ The Prophet was only a man; but he was a good man, an inspired man, a better man than he could have been without the inspiration of his master, Christ. In all his actions he was fearless as an angel of light. Not in all that has ever been written or said of him by friend or foe is there one word to impugn the magnificent physical bravery and moral courage of Joseph Smith. ”

“ Peace shall be taken from the land which permits these crimes against the Saints to go unavenged.
I call upon all friends of truth and liberty to come to our assistance; and may the thunders of the Almighty, and the forked lightnings of heaven, and pestilence, and war, and bloodshed come down on those ungodly men who seek to destroy my life and the lives of this innocent people.
I do not regard my own life. I am ready to be offered a sacrifice for this people; for what can our enemies do? Only kill the body, and their power is then at an end. ”

“ Bogart and his companions said to Elder Turley:
As a rational man, you must give up the claim that Joseph Smith is a prophet and an inspired man; the Twelve are scattered all over creation; let them come here if they dare: if they do, they will be murdered. As that revelation cannot be fulfilled, you must now give up your faith. This is like all the rest of Joseph Smith's damned prophecies.
Elder Turley rebuked them with such manliness and power of the Spirit that John Whitmer, one of the apostates who was present, hung his head in shame. ”

“ I call God and angels to witness that I have unsheathed my sword with a firm and unalterable determination that this people shall have their legal rights, and be protected from mob violence, or my blood shall be spilt upon the ground like water, and my body consigned to the silent tomb. While I live, I will never tamely submit to the dominion of accursed mobocracy. ”

“ Shall I who hold the keys of the last kingdom, in which is the dispensation of the fulness of all things spoken by the mouths of all the holy prophets since the world began, under the sealing power of the Melchizedek Priesthood—shall I stoop from the sublime authority of Almighty God to be handled as a monkey's catspaw, and pettify myself into a clown to act the farce of political demagoguery? ”

“ There is always a heroism in the honest, uncomplaining home-toil of youth: a necessary heroism, indeed, for without the early-formed habit of industry for man, the Almighty's purposes concerning mankind would fail. And that heroism is doubly beautiful in the life of Joseph, who knew already his destiny, divinely ordained. Left much to itself in the selfishness of earth, a weaker or an unsustained soul would have wasted its powers in vain dreamings or found its destruction in pride and self-glory. ”

“ We do not contend that we have the least right, under the Constitution and laws of the country, to expel them by force. But we would indeed be blind, if we did not foresee that the first blow that is struck, at this moment of deep excitement, must and will speedily involve every individual in a war, bearing ruin, woe and desolation in its course. It matters but little how, where, or by whom, the war may begin, when the work of destruction commences, we must all be borne onward by the storm, or crushed beneath its fury. ”

“ Many, being free agents and having power to choose whom they will serve, become the instruments of hate, and the earth is drenched with the blood of innocence. The Prophet Joseph, while he lived, was the conspicuous object of his vengeance. Like Paul, he could have recounted a long list of perils which he had to encounter, not the least of which, as in the case of Paul, were "perils among false brethren."' Of all the evils with which this great Prophet had to contend, none were so grievous or so hard to be borne as the defection and treason of "false brethren." ”

“ In the United States the people are the government, and their united voice is the only sovereign that should rule, the only power that should be obeyed, and the only gentlemen that should be honored at home and abroad, on the land and on the sea. Wherefore, were I the president of the United States by the voice of a virtuous people, I would honor the old paths of the venerated fathers of freedom. ”

“ And under view of these things, I feel it to be my right and privilege to obtain what influence and power I can, lawfully, in the United States, for the protection of injured innocence; and if I lose my life in a good cause, I am willing to be sacrificed on the altar of virtue, righteousness and truth, in maintaining the laws and constitution of the United States, if need be, for the general good of mankind. ”

“ Shall I, who have witnessed the visions of eternity, and beheld the glories of the mansions of bliss, and the regions and misery of the damned, shall I turn to be a Judas? Shall I, who have heard the voice of God, and communed with angels, and spake, as moved by the Holy Ghost, for the renewal of the everlasting covenant and for the gathering of Israel in the last days, shall I worm myself into a political hypocrite? ”

“ If a people, a community, or a society can accumulate wealth, increase in worldly fortune, improve in science and arts, rise to eminence in the eyes of the public, surmount these difficulties, so much as to bid defiance to poverty and wretchedness, it must be a new creation, a race of beings superhuman. But in all their poverty and want, we have yet to learn, for the first time, that our friends are not industrious and temperate, and wherein they have not always been the last to retaliate or resent an injury, and the first to overlook and forgive. ”

“ The Saints can testify whether I am willing to lay down my life for my brethren. If it has been demonstrated that I have been willing to die for a Mormon, I am bold to declare before heaven that I am just as ready to die in defending the rights of a Presbyterian, a Baptist or a good man of any other denomination; for the same principle which would trample upon the rights of the Latter-day Saints would trample upon the rights of the Roman Catholics, or of any other denomination who may be unpopular and too weak to defend themselves. ”

“ Many of our people were murdered in cold blood, the chastity of our women was violated, and we were forced to sign away our property at the point of the sword; and after enduring every indignity that could be heaped upon us by an inhuman, ungodly band of marauders, from twelve to fifteen thousand souls—men, women and children—were driven from their own firesides, and from lands that they had warrantee deeds of, houseless, friendless and homeless, in the depth of winter, to wander as exiles on the earth, or to seek an asylum in a more genial clime and among a less barbarous people. ”

“ The experience at De Witt and on the journey from that place to Far West taught the Prophet and the Saints anew that they had no hope of protection, no hope of redress, while they remained in Missouri; and no hope that if they attempted to leave they would not be set upon and massacred by the blood-thirsty mob. Nothing was left them but to organize in some fashion for self defense, as they came fleeing into Far West from all the surrounding country, leaving their worldly all and glad to escape with their lives. ”

“ Through the revelations of Jesus, the theology which he was inspired to teach was utterly unlike any system taught by man.
Instead of being lifted up by the favor which had been shown to him, Joseph was made to feel his own weaknesses. Chosen to be a prophet and the leader of God's people, he was conscious that he was only human, subject to human temptations and human frailties. Having the honesty and courage inspired by the Spirit of the Lord, he dared to confess this openly; and, under the same inspiration, acknowledge his transgression and make his contrition known. ”

“ During the long period—thirty-three years—which he outlived the Prophet (when a common man under his circumstances might have been tempted to criticise the acts or peculiarities of his predecessor, or to contrast his own management of affairs with that of Joseph's) no one ever heard a word drop from his lips that was not worthy of the two men. His own success and great and world-wide prominence never diminished nor obscured the deep-rooted love and loyalty he felt towards the man whom God had chosen to hold the keys of this last dispensation and to be his file-leader in the Priesthood. ”

“ We have been driven from time to time, and that without cause, and been smitten again and again, and that without provocation, until we have proved the world with kindness, and the world proved us that we have no design against any man or set of men; that we injure no man; that we are peaceable with all men; minding our own business, and our own business only. We have suffered our rights and our liberties to be taken from us; we have not avenged ourselves for those wrongs. We have appealed to magistrates, to sheriffs, judges, to governors and to the President of the United States, all in vain. ”